No Strings Attached
by ayushi
Summary: Everything in Takenouchi Sora's life is normal. Almost everything, to be precise. She does possess this strange ability that allows her to see the red string of fate that connects two people. She tries her best to not be affected by it, until the love lives of everyone around her start getting jumbled. Should she stand by and watch or should she interfere?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I should probably not be starting this without having updated Koisuru in 2 months, but the idea stuck in my head and I couldn't help it. Also as much I would have liked to keep it a surprise, this is a strictly Taiora story. I don't want people to read this hoping for a different ending, as for the other pairings I'll let you guys figure that out, but you know I'm trash so it can only have that one result.

One.

-x-

 _She watched as her father walked out of their house without turning back, her mother was on her knees on the floor sobbing quietly as her hands clutched her chest. Sora stood next to the crouching figure of her mother and patted her back silently. It was all her five year old self could manage at that time, words disappearing from her lips as her mother continued to shake and shudder. Her empty eyes fell onto her mother's hands and suddenly with a jolt that shook her entire body, Sora took a step back. Tied around the little finger of her mother's right hand, was a shining red ribbon extending into the direction her father had just been standing in. Sora's bright eyes were overtaken by sorrow as she watched the string fade and disintegrate as her father got further away from them, her mother continued to cry as the string fell loose from her finger and vanished into non-existence before hitting the floor, never to appear on her mother's finger ever again._

"Could it be? The great Takenouchi Sora is day-dreaming in class?"

Sora opened her eyes, grinning she turned to face her best friend sitting next to her. He had a smug look on his face, satisfied that he had caught her doing something she wasn't supposed to because it was usually the other way around. He rested his face on his palm and grinned back at her. As it was a natural habit of hers, Sora let her eyes roam for a short instance over his hands, once again re-establishing the lack of the red ribbon on either of them, she settled with looking him directly in the eye. His deep brown eyes held only mischief and humour as he wiggled his eyebrows at her, attempting to elicit a response from her.

"Well, I'm only human after all." Sora stated.

"Woah! What a truly amazing day it is, Sora has finally entered the realm of the slackers. We must rejoice, we must celebrate!" His smug grin widened and she laughed at his attempt to dance while remaining in his seat.

Happy and foolish, this was her best friend Yagami Taichi, red string or not Sora wouldn't have him any other way.

"Can you celebrate by observing 1000 minutes of silence?"

Sora turned around to face her other best friend, who was patiently using the self-study period to actually catch up on studying, and was obviously annoyed by Taichi's antics. She watched as Yamato fixed a glare at Taichi, setting down his pen and preparing to go into an all-out argument. She hoped they wouldn't but knew that this is usually how their day went.

"If you look closely Sora, you will see the specimen known as 'Grumpy Old Man' sitting right behind you. Their hobbies include dissing the youth and technology at least once an hour." Taichi smirked, meeting Yamato's glare with a mischievous look. Sora fought hard to control her laughter, knowing that it would only make Yamato angrier.

"I know living away from your home planet makes your head go a little wonky, Tai, but I pray every day that your makers come and beam you back to whichever fucked up planet you arrived from." Yamato replied, without missing a beat.

Sora chuckled to herself as she turned her attention back to the open notebook lying on her table and tuned out the bickering duo. Out of habit, she glanced once at Yamato, noticing the small knot of red tied around the little finger of his left hand, she went back to her studying, leaving the boys to argue and make up on their own. But as she picked up her pencil, and started reading what she had written so far she couldn't help but remember the small dream that she had had a few minutes ago. It had been a long time since she had last thought about her father, a long time since she had thought about the day that slightly changed her life. So she thought it strange that it would all come back to her today. Was something special going to happen, she wondered. But, she thought, she'd already studied Taichi and Yamato's hands and both had remained unchanged and devoid of any signs that their fate would change today. Apart from the two boys, she couldn't think of anyone else whose change in fate might affect her.

Taichi and Yamato were indeed her closest friends, and the two people who she cared the most about after her mother. It was ironic however, that her ability had failed her in helping them be happy. She'd known Taichi before she was able to identify the red string, so at first she didn't pay any attention to the fact that he didn't possess one. It was as they grew older, and her faith and knowledge in her ability increased that she was able to figure out that something was not right about this. He'd catch her staring at his hand quite often but Sora was never able to gather the courage to tell him the truth, simply because she didn't want him to think that she was weird. She trusted Taichi with her life but she'd understood early on itself that her ability should remain a secret, even from people she cared about. Although Taichi wasn't the only one who lacked the red string on his little finger, Sora's mom was the same. But Sora knew that her mom had subconsciously chosen to cut the string off when she had decided that she will not fall in love again. Her mother had forsaken the emotion of love, and Sora wondered if Taichi had done the same?

She never asked him this question however, afraid of the answer she might receive. For her, Taichi was a ray of sunshine. His goofy smile would be the first thing she saw when she set off for school in the morning, uplifting her mood instantly. His silly jokes and cheerfulness made her get through the day easily, keeping her blissful until she had to head back home and face the dreary atmosphere of her house where her mother rarely ever smiled. The thought of the one person who kept her truly happy being unable to love would always drive her crazy, and it was at these moments that she despised her ability. If only she hadn't known about the existence of the string thoughts of Taichi's fate would not plague her at her darkest moments. All she could do for him was wait patiently for the right person to arrive and touch his heart and soul by creating the string of fate.

Yamato was different, in fact his case was closer to Sora's mother than Taichi's. The bond Sora shared with Yamato was the mutual pain they both went through when their parents split. Yamato's was deeper because not only did he lose his mother, he also lost his younger brother. There was no one in the world who could parallel Yamato's love for his brother, Takeru but the fates had not been kind to them. They were lucky that his mother had more or less decided to stay in the same neighbourhood. But when they started middle school, his mother decided to suddenly move away taking Takeru with her halfway across the country. Those were the worst two years of Yamato's life. He was barely able to meet Takeru once or twice a year because of time and financial constraints. He completely shut himself down, not reacting until it was absolutely necessary, and there were a lot of times during that period that Sora ate lunch alone and walked home alone because Taichi could no longer take Yamato's stoniness. The two fought quite often during those two years, and it was then Sora learned that she shouldn't interfere with them because Yamato seemed most alive when he argued with Taichi.

Fortunately, Takeru and his mother returned in the third year of their middle school and some part of Yamato did go back to normal, but some part of him was lost to the void and Sora was afraid he'd never be able to get it back. She wasn't sure whether it was during this time or it was when his parents divorced, Yamato had decided that love was unreal, and he didn't want anything to do with it. The string sat on his left hand, tied into a knot always remaining still. He had been confessed to countless times, and there were many other times that Sora felt that maybe that girl would do it for Yamato, but the knot remained, unmoving, telling Sora that her best friend was empty inside.

Sometimes she'd be on the train or on the bus, when she'd see that the two strangers standing next to each other were connected by the red string. This sight would fill her with excitement as she tried to think up of scenarios where they would realize their love for each other and live happily ever after. She'd be able to tell if the latest couple in their school would last or not just by one look at their hands, she'd be able to predict the teachers who were secretly dating and who would be the next couple to get together. This definitely made her popular with the girls in her class, as she became the best person to go to gossip for, but it never left her feeling happy. Seeing strangers in a bus was okay because she knew she'd never be able to influence their lives directly, but when it came to people around her, the dreadful feeling would settle in her stomach whenever she realized that the girl was actually supposed to be with the guy's best friend. She hated prying into their lives like this, into their emotions, just because she could.

Being with Taichi and Yamato kept her sane, but whenever her eyes would drift towards their hands, the dreadful feeling would return leaving her hopeless. Here were two people she cared deeply about, but couldn't do anything for and on the other side were people she couldn't be bothered about but she knew the most intricate detail of their lives. It tore her apart, to live like this every day but it was too late to share the secret now. Taichi and Yamato would never accept that she lied to them for so long, and she would lose the only stability she had created for herself.

She did however have a theory. Sora liked to think that she was able to see this string because she herself hadn't fallen in love. She belived that the day it happened would be the day the red ribbons would disappear from her vision forever. She waited for the love of her life to arrive every day, tired of the emotions she had to carry within herself. But the absence of the string on her hands only led her to harbour more questions than answers. What she was not aware of was how her ability to see the string of fate had clouded her vision more than ever making her unable to see the simple answer lying in front of her. Instead unknowingly, she went out of her way to avoid what was so obvious, even her two best friends had caught whiff of it way before it hit her.

-x-

 **A/N:** This was just the introductory chapter, so it's not that long. Review and let me know what you think about the concept, and as always, thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n:** Thank you so much for reviewing, favouriting and following the story even when it hadn't been updated in months. It makes me happy that so many people are interested in this concept and I hope I can write it well. This chapter is basically like an introduction for Mimi's character, and I thought since Toei is using Meiko to trigger the plot in tri why shouldn't I do the same thing?

Two.

-x-

The sky outside had started to lose its glamour as their self-study period dragged on. Sora had already helped Taichi with their worksheet which led to the latter sleeping soundly and Yamato had already finished the work even before they began with it, so he sat with his earphones plugged in, quietly humming a tune as he gazed outside. Sora had decided to follow his lead, but the clear blue sky wasn't appealing to her after a few minutes. She sighed, and surveyed the classroom out of boredom, she thought of leaving her desk to go chat with some of her female friends but just as she was about to stand up, their homeroom teacher entered, clapping his hands and clearing his throat to catch their attention. The whole class straightened up and turned to face the teacher. Yamato kicked Taichi's leg lightly to wake him up and the brunet's head shot up immediately, he turned around and narrowed his eyes at Yamato who just stared back at him blankly.

"Yagami, face this side please." Their teacher called, and Taichi sluggishly turned around, his face still holding a drowsy expression as he turned to the front.

Sora chuckled at this sight and turned her attention towards their teacher as well, noticing that he was scribbling a name on the blackboard, he then turned to the door and beckoned the person standing behind the door to come in. The heads of her classmates moved in unison as they settled with staring intently at the entrance of their classroom, awaiting the new addition to their class. Sora followed her peers, feeling a little excited and hoping it was a girl. It was very unusual for them to get transfer students at this point in the school year, and the feeling that she had since morning that something different would happen was probably a premonition for this. She wanted to assume that this person would become a good friend to Sora, and that's why her strange powers had been sending warning signs to her since morning. The person waiting outside was probably feeling nervous as they took their time coming in, and a smile appeared on Sora's face as a navy haired girl entered their class.

"Aah."

Sora turned towards Taichi, puzzled by his reaction.

He faced her with a grin and whispered, "I told you I ran into one of our new neighbours in the morning right? That's her."

Sora nodded as her attention shifted back to their teacher who was now introducing their new classmate. Mochizuki Meiko, was her name. A once over told Sora that she was the shy type as the new girl could barely bring herself to look up and face the class as their teacher talked about her, and her cheeks were tinted red from probably embarrassment or nervousness. The teacher talked about how her father was a university professor and due to his sudden transfer Mochizuki had to move from the countryside, he hoped that they would try their best to make her feel welcome. Sora noticed that some of their male classmates were already eyeing the new girl with sudden interest which made her roll her eyes. Their teacher pointed to the empty seat in front of Taichi and Sora readied herself for a friendly greeting, she watched as Meiko's eyes followed the teacher's but instead of focusing at the seat her gaze met Taichi's. Taichi being his usual self, smiled at her. It didn't mean anything, Sora knew that very well, he was just being polite, but still she felt an unusual pang rise up in her chest and to her own surprise, when Meiko made her way towards them, Sora didn't offer her any words but only a small, forced smile.

Noticing that Meiko was being extremely cautious to not meet anyone's eyes, Sora felt a slight irritation rise within herself as the girl passed her without a second glance. Was it because she was embarrassed or not interested, Sora couldn't tell. What Sora was able to understand was when the new girl arrived at her seat, she paused and faced Taichi and as he politely smiled at her, her cheeks turned cherry red and she nodded slightly before taking her seat. Sora tried her very best to concentrate on the book on her desk and not let the disarray of emotions she was feeling stirring deep inside her to appear on her face, when a sudden movement caught her eye. Her raspberry eyes widened in shock and she had to contain her gasp with much effort as she saw a red string slowly drift from Meiko's lap where her hands rested, towards Taichi. The string didn't attach itself to Taichi but just came to a stop a bit farther away from his hand, and Sora could swear, in that moment, so did her heart.

X

"So new student huh?"

Sora frowned as she paused eating for a minute and turned to face her lunch date with curious eyes, "How did you know?"

"I'm always up to date Sora-san, that's my specialty!" Mimi smirked as she flipped her hair backwards stylishly, slightly for a dramatic effect and slightly to make her friend laugh.

The two girls sat on one of the slightly secluded benches in the school gardens enjoying some undisturbed quality time together. Today was one of their lunch-swap days and Sora was slightly uneasy about eating as much jam and whipped cream as was spread over every item in her bento but nevertheless she endured, so as to not hurt her friend's feelings.

Mimi Tachikawa was a year junior to Sora, and ever since she had bumped into the brunette in the hallway on the day of the entrance ceremony, they had become fast friends. If there was anyone who would come close to understanding her apart from Taichi and Yamato, it would probably be Mimi. Sora had only known her for around six months and they usually only met twice or thrice a week, but she always felt like she and Mimi had been friends for years. Although they didn't have much in common, in fact their choices were mostly as far apart as possible, when they talked everything seemed to click, it seemed to fall into place for Sora. She was also able to open up to Mimi about things she couldn't to her other two friends and that had seemed to really uplift her mood in the small while that she had known her. Just a few weeks after the beginning of 'Mimi-time' as Taichi had termed it, both him and Yamato kept commenting on a sudden change in Sora's 'aura', which she brushed off initially as their usual silliness but later somewhat understood what they were trying to say as she felt the change herself.

Naturally, now that Mimi had become a huge part of her daily life Sora could not stop herself from being curious about the stagnant red string tied to her junior's finger. While it wasn't extending and drifting off in a peculiar direction, just like Yamato's string, it wasn't fully stagnant either with more than a few strands drifting independently in various directions. One of these tiny strands had started facing Sora recently which had surprised her immensely. But after observing Mimi and thinking about it thoroughly, the auburn haired girl realized that Mimi's sense of love was different than most people. For her it was a pure emotion that she extended to everyone, her family, her friends and sometimes even to random strangers on the street who'd pass her a shy smile as their eyes met. Unlike Yamato, who had stopped believing in love, Mimi belived in it to such an extent that everyone she deeply cared about was somehow tied to her fate. And as much as Taichi and Yamato's status made her slightly lose faith in her belief over love, looking at Mimi's multiple strings would put it right back where it belonged. Sometimes however, Sora wondered how Mimi's string would change, when she actually met her soul mate and she secretly hoped that she would still have this strange power so she could witness it.

"Yeah, she just moved from the countryside. Sudden job transfer, apparently." Sora replied, popping a jam covered tart in her mouth.

"Mom or Dad?" Mimi asked again, happily stuffing her mouth with the perfectly normal bento that Sora had made for her.

"Dad." Sora answered, tearfully eyeing the food in Mimi's lap.

"Interesting," Mimi muttered, a musing look covered her pale face as she took a bite out of the croquette that Sora had worked so hard on, "So are you best friends with her already?"

"Actually I didn't really find her to be that interesting, she barely spoke two words," Sora said, her voice became a little more louder and the words spilled out a little more faster than usual as Meiko's wary eyes as she first entered the classroom flashed across her mind. She then internally cursed herself for being so stupid, Mimi wasn't the type of person who missed signs and let things go.

"So what did the new girl do to piss _you_ off?" the brunette snickered, raising an eyebrow in amusement as Sora felt herself flush under her stare.

" _Nothing_. Like I said, she didn't talk much," Sora muttered and quickly turned her full attention towards her lunch, hurriedly stuffing item after item in her mouth to stop Mimi from taking this conversation further. She herself wasn't sure how she felt about Meiko or her _connection_ to Taichi, or if she even felt something about it at all, so she definitely wasn't ready to come clean about this to Mimi. The two were quiet for a while and Sora hoped that the silence would last until the bell rang, signalling the start of class, but Mimi as always, had something different planned.

"Actually, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something important today," she started, closing the lid of the now empty bento box and setting it between herself and Sora on the bench, Mimi turned to face Sora fully.

Although Sora hadn't finished eating, she followed suit as she noticed the sudden change in her friend's attitude. When she looked at Mimi, she saw that her junior was trying to look happy but the smile on her face didn't reach her eyes. Her caramel eyes seemed clouded with uncertainty, as she met Sora's gaze it seemed to her that Mimi was searching for something, she wanted something from Sora. It wasn't until the brunette started talking that Sora realized what exactly Mimi was searching for.

"I'm…seeing someone now."

It took two full minutes for Sora to comprehend the words that had just left her junior's mouth. In these two minutes, Sora's eyes constantly flew towards Mimi's hands checking and re-checking only to find the same short red strings drifting around in the air aimlessly. When she met Mimi's gaze, she couldn't accept the smile plastered on her face because it didn't match the truth that Sora was aware of, unknowingly to Mimi.

"Well you're taking the news almost as badly as my father…" Mimi chuckled, her gaze shifting downwards. That's when Sora understood what she had been searching for.

 _Approval._

Mimi wanted approval, not specifically from Sora but in general. She wanted to know if what she was doing was right. Sora was unsure whether she could give the brunette what she wanted because the truth was right in front of her eyes and she couldn't bring herself to look past it. But at the same time, Sora did not want to lose her as a friend, so she acted according to the situation.

"Well because, its' just…so sudden, I don't know what to say…"Sora stuttered slightly, which was a silly habit of hers when she tried to do something she didn't want to, she hoped to all things holy that Mimi wouldn't catch on to it.

"Well yeah, I understand that," Mimi said, her smile fading slightly.

"I mean I didn't even know you had someone you liked," Sora continued, trying her best to not stutter by keeping her eyes on Mimi's face and not letting her gaze drift towards her hands.

"He, uh, kind of wore me down you know?" Mimi met her gaze for a second and then looked away, knowing that Sora would catch her drift.

" _Oh._ Your childhood friend. Koushiro-kun was it?" Sora asked, talking more to herself than to her junior but Mimi nodded still avoiding her gaze.

Sora didn't want to stay quiet, she wanted to congratulate Mimi and cheerfully share this moment with her, tease her, tell her she was happy for her and most importantly, reassure her. But this was the curse of her gift, she already knew the terrible outcome and thus could not bring herself to fake happiness for the sake of her friend. Sora had only met Koushiro once or twice and both times it had been painfully obvious, that that boy was smitten with Mimi. And both the times Sora had repeatedly checked to see if his string was remotely pointing towards Mimi, because sometimes it takes time for people to realize their love for someone, so maybe it would take a while for Mimi to realize that Koushiro was her soul mate and eventually their strings would entangle and tie them to each other. But to her surprise, Koushiro's string had been drifting in a totally opposite direction, his soul mate had already been picked by the fates and it wasn't Mimi. And yet here Mimi was, attempting to return his feelings, which shouldn't exist for her in the first place. To top it all off, Mimi had talked to Sora about how she wanted to be confessed to, what her ideal first date would be like, how she wanted to be proposed to, how her ideal wedding would come to be countless times and somehow Koushiro never seemed to fit in the picture.

Sora also didn't want someone she cared deeply about to settle for just anyone when she knew that the right person was out there, waiting to be found. Her mother had told her once, ages ago, that sometimes you have to go through a few heartbreaks to find the right person, and maybe this was how Mimi's romantic journey was supposed to proceed but Sora couldn't bring herself to accept that. She knew this was wrong, she could stop her friend from getting hurt so why shouldn't she?

"As much as I am surprised by this, I'm glad you're giving this a try Mimi-chan, you never know how things might turn out," Sora smiled as widely as she could when Mimi finally decided to meet her gaze. As much as Sora wanted to protect her friend from heartbreak she also didn't want their friendship to end because of her unwanted ability. So she decided to take the middle path, she wouldn't directly discourage Mimi from taking this step, but at the same time somehow make Mimi understand that she was against it without hurting her feelings.

Mimi seemed to contemplate Sora's words as she tilted her head backwards and looked up at the sky, Sora faced ahead instead, watching the brunette from the corner of her eye. Her face looked calmer than it had at the beginning of this conversation and that relieved Sora a little, she didn't know the conclusion that Mimi had reached in her head, but she was determined to use her curse to control the damage even before it began.

-x-

 **A/n:** Hopefully by the next chapter the update gap would be shorter and the chapter longer, thank you for reading and reviews/criticisms are always welcome. Sora might seem a little domineering at this point, but she'll get better.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Well hello. No I did not give up on this story, I'm just a slow writer. And a huge procrastinator. Thank you for the reviews/follows/favourites in my absence, they are always appreciated.

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Three

-x-

The sound of knives hitting the chopping board was covered by the unstoppable chatter of the girls bustling around the Home Economics classroom. This was one of Sora's favourite classes and yet she couldn't bring herself to participate with as much vigour as she usually did today. They were supposed to cook in pairs of two, and their teacher assuming that Sora would be the most suitable person to help the new transfer student blend in, had paired her up with Mochizuki Meiko. Under normal circumstances, Sora would have loved nothing more than to help out the new student, as she had done countless times since her elementary school years, but Mochizuki was different.

It had been three days since Mochizuki had joined their school, and there was already a wall between her and Sora. Mochizuki hadn't actively done anything to push her away, or maybe she had, Sora wasn't sure yet but there was something about the presence of the navy haired girl that made a sense of discomfort rise inside her. She couldn't tell whether this was her own emotion or something coming through because of her ability, and thus, she decided to give the new girl a chance. Pushing all her uneasiness aside, Sora had still tried to make friends with her, but it wasn't easy. Mochizuki Meiko was an extremely shy girl, and Sora could tell that her forced interest was pushing the other girl even further away. But there was nothing more that she could do, she was good at hiding her ability but not her emotions.

Nevertheless, Sora attempted to play nice.

"Mochizuki-san, is there a different way to cook this dish in your home town?" Sora attempted another bleak conversation starter as the curry simmered on the stove. They had been asked to make curry and rice and Sora was pretty sure that curry was cooked in the same manner all over Japan but she still decided to take the risk and ask the silly question.

Mochizuki tilted her head slightly as she pondered over the question, Sora felt a little bit of relief wash over her because at least the new girl was considering her attempt now.

"It's not much different, but my mother had her own mini-farm back home and those vegetables tasted much better than the ones we buy from the supermarket here," Mochizuki finally replied after a while and Sora had trouble keeping herself from jumping up in triumph as she had finally gotten her partner to speak a full-fledged sentence.

"Disadvantages of city life I suppose," Sora replied, smiling earnestly.

"Takenouchi-san, have you always lived in Tokyo?" Mochizuki asked, a hint of curiosity in her eyes as she faced Sora.

"Yeah, my parents met while they were in college together so it's always been apartments and high rises for me." Sora sighed in reply, she did always want to live in a big traditional house with surrounded by mountains and greenery, maybe she could find more things in common with Mochizuki than she had initially expected, "Oh and you can call me Sora by the way, no need to be so formal!" She grinned.

Mochizuki's cheeks were immediately tinted in red as she shifted her gaze to the ground and nodded vigorously. They worked in comfortable silence after that, scoring praises from their teacher and classmates over the presentation and taste of their dish. Surprisingly, as the girls walked back to their classroom from the Home Economics room, Mochizuki caught up to Sora and in the quietest voice told her that she could call her Meiko too if she wanted and Sora couldn't help but beam in response.

Watching Sora comfortably converse with Meiko made a few other girls from their class step forward and take an interest in her and extend a friendly hand. Sora felt like the uneasy weight that had settled on her shoulders ever since she'd seen Meiko's red string stretch out towards Taichi was finally wearing off. She had been sceptical about the new girl because she was new, now that she'd slowly begin to blend in there was no need to worry about her and maybe, there was a chance of her string moving away from Taichi as she met more people and made new friends.

Or at least that was what Sora was hoping would happen. Another question she needed to solve was why on earth was she getting so affected by this girl's string moving towards Taichi? Maybe because it was the first time it had happened right in front of her eyes. Through their school years, a lot of girls in their class had had crushes on Taichi. But that's what they'd always been, crushes, their strings would suddenly face Taichi and in a week or month they'd change direction.

This time though, the string had materialized right in front of Sora, something she rarely witnessed. And from her past experiences, this only happened when someone fell in love and she just could not bring herself to accept that that was the case with Meiko's string. She knew she was being somewhat possessive about Taichi, but after watching him for so long she wasn't just going to give him up to just anyone, somewhere in the back of her mind a meek voice pointed out that maybe she'd never want to give him up, but she shut that thought down, not wanting to go down that road yet again...

The roof was occupied by a few more groups and was noisier than usual but the trio decided to eat lunch there anyway since Taichi pointed out it was still better than walking around school looking for a quieter area. Sora had saved some of the curry she and Meiko cooked during class and offered it to the boys, who didn't hold back in finishing whatever little was left of the dish.

"That was delicious Sora, thank you." Yamato smiled, he moved on to his own lunch which Sora knew would taste equally good if not better, which made his compliment even more worth it.

"You guys should have home economics every day," Taichi stated, he'd already started munching down his own lunch so he could quickly sneak stuff out of Yamato's or Sora's lunches when they weren't looking.

"I feel that the only part of you that's actually growing over the years is your appetite, everything else about you is just still 5 years old," Yamato muttered.

Taichi replied with a scowl, but eating took priority over arguing with his best friend so he continued his assault on food without retorting. Sora chuckled and picked up her own lunch, the smile never leaving her face. The weather was just right for lunch on the roof, the laughter mixed in with the voices coming from the other students was somehow soothing, letting a wistful sigh escape her Sora let herself relax and let go of all the uneasy thoughts that had been bothering her all day.

"So I have news on the band front," Yamato started, he'd split the sandwich he had packed for himself with Taichi claiming that he was full because of the curry they just ate, but Sora could tell it was because he just couldn't resist Taichi's puppy face. "We're playing at a small cafe this Saturday, entry is free."

"That's awesome!" Sora exclaimed, "It'll be easier to draw the crowd in right?"

"Yeah, I made a Facebook event about it and the response has been pretty good,"Yamato said.

"You made a Facebook event by yourself?" Taichi asked, snickering.

"Well, not by myself," Yamato replied, a tint of red covering his cheeks, "Takeru helped me do it."

"You mean Takeru made the event." Taichi taunted and Sora laughed along with him.

"Same thing," Yamato muttered under his breath, admitting defeat "I was hoping you'd spread the word in your various circles..." He trailed off, looking at Sora expectantly.

" _Various circles._ " Sora repeated mockingly, shaking her head she added, "You guys make me out to be more social than I am."

Taichi rolled his eyes, "Yeah because you're not on the student council, three different clubs, friends with half the school-"

"Okay, okay you made your point." Sora interrupted him, her face red with embarrassment as Taichi gloated over getting the last word in yet again. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat as his grin widened and covered his whole face, reaching his eyes and making them brighter than usual. And when their eyes met, Sora felt a jolt pass through her entire body, immediately averting her gaze from Taichi's she took a deep breath and did the only sensible thing she could think of in that situation. She jabbed one of her chopsticks into Taichi's cheek to get him to stop smiling.

"Ow!" Taichi yelped, hurriedly pulling himself back from her reach, he picked up his own chopstick and readied himself for a counter-attack but she quickly shifted from her sitting position and took cover behind Yamato's back, "You think that I won't sacrifice Yamato to get to you?" Taichi asked dramatically and Sora unconsciously giggled in reply.

Yamato, however, already annoyed at their antics, pried Taichi and Sora's chopsticks from their hands forcefully, eyeing them angrily like a parent does to a two year old until they settled back calmly into their original positions.

"Getting back to the point, help me out here Sora." Yamato smiled softly.

Sora met his gaze and managed to return the smile, "Of course, you can count on me." Somehow, Yamato's smile did not have the same effect on her as Taichi's and she was able to hold his gaze without feeling electrocuted. She sneaked a glance at Taichi, he was concentrating on getting the chopsticks out of Yamato's hands, and although she didn't feel her whole body stir, the longer she stared at him the faster her heart started to beat. Odd, she thought, she had been looking at Taichi everyday since kindergarten and yet something about him had started to feel different. Like how his eyes shone when his smile reached his eyes. How had she never noticed that before, Sora wondered.

"I'll ask Mimi-chan to spread the word too, honestly she's way more social than I am," Sora spoke up, more to herself than to the two boys sitting in front of her, in an attempt to change the Taichi-centered train of thought currently running in her head.

"About that...uhm," Yamato began, Sora and Taichi looked at him curiously and he stuttered, his pale cheeks turning a light pink as he continued, "Did you know Takeru and her are friends?"

"Takeru-kun and Mimi-chan are friends?" Sora looked slightly puzzled, the younger blond's name had never come up in her conversations with Mimi, but somehow it didn't completely surprise her that they were friends, she could picture them getting along pretty easily.

"Yeah, not just friends, 'go out every other weekend' and 'shop for clothes together' kind of friends." Yamato scowled, not happy with his recent discovery.

"I am a little surprised, but why are _you_ so annoyed?" Sora frowned, unable to understand Yamato's irritation.

"Isn't it a little suspicious, that they spend so much time together and-"

"Wait, are you worried that Takeru-kun and Mimi-chan are dating?" Sora raised her eyebrows, she could feel the laughter bubbling up inside her but she controlled herself for Yamato's sake.

"Not possible, Mimi's dating Koushiro." Taichi stated absent-mindedly, his eyes were still on those chopsticks.

"How do you know that?" Sora turned to Taichi, bewildered by his reply. Yamato on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief, comforted by the fact that his own predictions were wrong.

"Well Sora, you're not the only one who has a junior as their lackey," Taichi replied, throwing a smirk in her direction. Sora noticed that the only effect that smirk had on her mirrored annoyance and that was nothing new.

"Knowing how smart Koushiro-kun is, it's probably the other way around," Sora spat back, scowling in response to the brunet's cocky smirk, which faltered at her words.

"It really isn't. Koushiro comes to me for advice all the time," Taichi defended himself but Yamato and Sora both looked unimpressed with his reply. Neither could fathom the thought of Taichi playing out the role of a reliable senior to a genius like Koushiro.

"Right..." the two replied in unison, their voices seeping with disbelief. Taichi tried to glare at them but eventually pouted and turned away making the duo laugh out loud.

"Anyway, Yamato, you shouldn't jump to conclusions like that. If Takeru-kun started dating anyone I'm sure you'd be the first person he'd tell," Sora said.

"I know..." Yamato muttered, pink with embarrassment.

"So Takeru-kun must have already invited Mimi-chan right, I wonder if she's planning to come by herself or-" The bell signalling the end of lunch rang loudly and Sora was unable to finish her sentence. The trio headed back to the classroom with the boys taking the lead. She could hear Taichi ask Yamato questions about the gig but she wasn't exactly following their conversation, buried deep in her own thoughts, unaware of Taichi sneaking glances back at her as they walked.

Sora thought about how unsure Mimi had looked when she'd told her about dating Koushiro but nevertheless she was curious to see them together. She knew her ability usually made her overstep the boundaries when it came to other people's relationships but this time, with Mimi, she was hoping that the strings were wrong and maybe Mimi and Koushiro's relationship wouldn't end up in pieces. It was very rare for her to think like that. She'd always assumed her ability couldn't go wrong, and whenever the strings were right, adrenaline would rush through her, giving her a sense of power like no other thing ever could. Which is why, hoping for the strings to be incorrect was something very new to Sora, but lately, everything was starting to seem that way. Even Taichi's smile.

-x-

 **A/N:** After tri, my habit of shipping the non-canon ship has caught on to Takeru as well, and rather than Takari, I've become a Koukeru shipper. So I'd like some feedback over the possibility of this involving KoushiroxTakeru instead of TakeruxHikari as the third ship. And of course, reviews are always welcome!


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